


Monsters in Indiana

by megsblackfire



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Racism, Modern Supernatural AU, but its there if you aren't comfortable with it, getting lost on the back roads sucks, mentions of lynching, monsters are born from unfortunate circumstances, nothing too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 23:42:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14031432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megsblackfire/pseuds/megsblackfire
Summary: Ana Amari must have taken a wrong turn somewhere; why did all of these backroad cornfields have to look the same? At least the nice young man she met on the side of the road gave her directions to get out. But, when she came across him again not too long afterwards, she knew that something was wrong.She will be lucky to get out of this alive.





	Monsters in Indiana

Ana groaned as she watched the miles and miles of corn stretch on around her. She had no idea how she had managed to get lost, but there she was, lost in an Indiana backroad nightmare of a corn maze. She pulled over to the side of the road and rubbed at her face, growling and grumbling in frustration. Why people thought that planting so much crop was a good idea, she didn’t know. Last time she checked, having this many similar populations together was just begging for a terrible plague. Had people learned nothing from Ireland?

She glanced up from her brooding and blinked. There was a man crouching by the side of the road and looking over a small ear of corn. She turned her car off and slowly got out, not wanting to surprise a complete stranger in the back country. That was a good way to get killed. She slammed the door shut and the man looked up, bright blue eyes blinking quickly.

“Oh, afternoon, ma’am,” the man smiled as he got to his feet and dusted his hands off on his pants. “What brings you out here on this lovely day?”

“Lost,” Ana sighed. “I was supposed to be meeting my daughter at a house she just purchased with her friends. I must have taken a wrong turn and now I don’t know how to get to the highway again.”

“Oh, well, that’s simple,” the man laughed and waved a hand. “But I can see how you could get confused. They don’t label the roads very well out here. Okay, so,” the man smiled at her and nodded his head, “you’re going to want to continue down this road for about ten minutes, then hang a right at the first fork in the road that you see. Follow that for another half hour, then turn left. Follow that for about an hour and take an immediate left onto the highway. That should get you back on your way.”

“Thank you so much,” Ana sighed happily and held out her hand. “I owe you one, sir.”

“No problem, ma’am,” the man shook her hand firmly and bobbed his head. “Just call me Jack.”

“Ana,” she smiled before pulling away. “Thank you again, Jack.”

She waved as she hurried back to her car, started it, and drove off. Jack waved in her rearview mirror, smiling until she was around the corner. At the last moment, she saw a huge figure join Jack on the road, looking like a shadow before she spotted the red plaid shirt and faded blue jeans. She saw just enough of the two to see dark arms wrap around Jack’s waist before Jack’s eyes seemed to glow.

She blinked, but she was already going around the corner and they had vanished. She was tempted to put on the brakes and back up, but she kept going, unable to remove her hands from the wheel.

* * *

 

Ana slowed her car down and sat idling in the middle of the road. She stared at the man crouching on the corner and felt her heartrate start to increase. She turned the vehicle off, not afraid of anyone running into her; there hadn’t been anyone on the road for hours. She scrambled out of the car and hurried forward.

“Jack!” she shouted. “What is going on?”

The man looked up and rose, smiling nervously. “C-can I help you, ma’am?” he asked.

“Did you send me around in a damn circle?” she demanded. “Do you think this is funny?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, ma’am,” the man said as he lifted his hands. “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean, am I okay?” she demanded. “I just spoke with you twenty minutes ago! You sent me in a damn circle!”

Jack frowned at her before shaking his head. “Ma’am, I’d remember seeing someone like you,” he said. “I’ve been all alone out here for hours. No one else has been on this road.”

“Just tell me how to get out of this damn cornfield,” Ana snapped. “I don’t want to be out here after dark.”

“No, you certainly wouldn’t want to,” Jack agreed with a nod. “They’re dangerous. Who knows what might run onto the road. So, you’re going to want to follow this road for ten minutes….”

“And take the first right; you already told me that and it led me right back here,” she snapped.

“I wouldn’t have told you to go right, ma’am,” Jack shook his head. “You take a left onto McDowell Road and follow that for about an hour. Then, you take a left onto the highway.”

“Thank you,” she snapped. “Here’s to hoping I don’t see your freckled mug again.”

She stomped back to her car and drove off. Jack didn’t wave as she drove away. He clutched his gloves to his chest like a scared child and she could bet the man was crying as she left him behind. She might have felt guilty if the same large man hadn’t stepped out of the cornfields to wrap his arms around Jack’s waist.

She shuddered and tried to focus on the road as she felt herself speeding up. She had to put distance between herself and whatever Jack and his mysterious partner were.

* * *

 

Ana slammed on her brakes as she stared at Jack crouched on the side of the road and slipped the car into park. He was still checking corn, but now the setting sun was turning his golden blond hair an unsettling shade of red. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat as she cranked the wheel in Jack’s direction. Whatever he was, she was not going to fall for this ploy; three times in one day was not something to trust.

She revved the engine in warning before she popped the car into drive. Jack looked up and tilted his head to the side with that familiar smile on his face. It looked much eerier now that she was positive there was something incredibly unnatural about the man. She narrowed her eyes before putting her accelerator to the floor and sending the car forward with a wild lurch.

Blue eyes widened as she approached and the man started to rise. Something came tearing out of the cornfield at the last possible moments and struck the front end of her car. She was forced around Jack’s body, fighting with the wheel as she tried to straighten herself out. The car spun several times before coming to a groaning stop facing the way she had come.

Her heart dropped into her stomach as she stared at the _thing_ that was standing where Jack had been. It looked like something out of a horror movie with impossibly long limbs, stiletto sharp claws, an emaciated body, too many eyes, and a long tongue that flopped out of its gaping mouth like a twisted attempt at making a mosquito proboscis. It screamed at her, rearing up onto its spindly legs to show off its bony body.

She screamed and scrambled for the gearshift. Fists slammed down on the hood of her car, lifting the back end off of the road as another thing attacked her car. Where the thing that had been Jack was pale, this other one was black with patches of mangy fur that looked like its flesh was covered with scales. Its tongue lashed the air before stabbing down into the hood of her car.

Her foot hit the accelerator and she sped forward, pushing the black thing ahead of her. It scrambled to hold onto her car, snarling at her as its nails took huge gouges out of the hood of her car. She hit the tiniest of potholes and the thing vanished under the nose of her car. She felt it smashed into the undercarriage and get dragged backwards behind her.

She saw the broken black body tumble out from under her car as her tires chewed up gravel and forced her forward. The thing that had been Jack shrieked and galloped past her, dropping over the broken form and nudging it furiously. Ana didn’t waste time in waiting around to see if the thing was dead. She sped off as fast as she could, her pants soaked through with urine as her headlights lit up the dirt road.

The cornfield gave way around her and she went skidding out onto the highway. She screamed again and twisted the steering wheel, spinning the car around twice before she came to a stop in the middle of the road. She sat there panting for a moment before she drove the car to the side of the highway and turned her four-ways on.

Then, when she was certain that she was at least hard to miss, she slumped over the steering wheel and started crying.

* * *

 

“Are you alright?” Angela asked as she threw her arms around Ana’s neck. “You look horrible!”

Ana shook her head as she let herself be led over to the couch and sank down. Fareeha hurried to make tea, staring over her shoulder as the other two roommates carefully draped a blanket over Ana’s shoulders. She thanked them for their kindness, rubbing at her eyes as she swallowed.

The police had picked her up on the side of the road after she’d called 911 to report her attack. They didn’t treat her like she was out of her mind and that scared her even more. They had her car towed to a good garage and drove her to the hospital to check her for injuries. When they were certain that she was fine, they drove her through the countryside to where her daughter and her roommates were living.

When she had her tea, Ana told them about what happened to her. The young adults started at her in disbelief before Genji ran his fingers up into his lime green hair, glancing at Fareeha expectantly. Ana glanced at her daughter and Fareeha shook her head.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” she murmured. “Those…things…they rarely ever let their prey escape.”

“But Ana’s not white or racist,” Hanzo shook his head.

“There was that black family that was killed back in the sixties,” Angela pointed out.

“Do you care to tell me what is going on?” Ana asked with a heavy sigh.

“There’s this urban legend around the area,” Fareeha sighed as she sat down and pulled Angela onto her lap to cuddle. “About a couple of gay men that died back in the twenties and haunt the cornfields. Supposedly, they were a mixed race couple that no one knew about for the longest time until someone walked in on the two of them having sex. The black man was lynched and the white man burned his house down shortly afterwards. Since then, they hunt down and kill any white, racist bastards that happen to be travelling the roads back here. But, they’ve also attacked and killed other people too, fairly innocent people whose only crimes were being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Do you have a description of what these two characters look like?” Ana asked as she set her tea down.

“White boy’s got golden blond hair, blue eyes, and skin covered in freckles,” Genji said. “The other guy looks massive, but he’s actually the same size as his partner. Close cropped hair, possibly shaved, and a well-kept circle beard. More people see the white guy rather than the darker partner.”

“Probably because they’re racist and would attack a black man on sight,” Fareeha shook her head.

“I’ve seen a few writings that suggest the man might actually be a mix of black and Mexican,” Angela said. “But, it is just an urban legend with some…terrifying real life commonalities.”

“I know what I saw,” Ana shook her head. “And my car was beaten up very badly. Whatever I encountered out there, I hope I never see them again.”

“Amen,” Fareeha smirked before she tilted her head to the side. “So, how was the drive aside from that?”

Ana smiled and happily let the subject of her attack fade away. She needed to take her mind off of the encounter and never bring it up again.

* * *

 

Jack rested Gabriel’s head in his lap and ran his fingers gently over his husband’s cheek. Gabriel’s body was still a broken mess, but their accelerated regenerative bodies was already making short work of his extensive injuries. They couldn’t die, not anymore, but that didn’t mean that Jack wasn’t worried about losing his husband.

Gabriel’s claws shifted on the dirt floor of their den before he let out a long, guttural sigh. Jack smiled and leaned forward, kissing over his husband’s cheek as he slowly woke up.

“Hey,” Jack greeted. “You hungry?”

“Always,” Gabriel murmured as one red eye opened and rolled up towards him. “We made a bad call with that woman.”

Jack nodded as he reached behind him for one of the rotting rabbit carcasses. “We seem to have less and less prey come through here as the years go on,” he agreed. “They must be getting smarter.”

Gabriel twisted and snapped for the carcass, pulling it out of Jack’s hand with a loud crunch. Jack smiled as he watched Gabriel feast on the offering, his eyes rolling towards the pile that Jack had hunted for him while Gabriel was resting. His needle-tongue trembled before it jammed itself into the bloated belly of the rabbit and started sucking everything up.

“I know the rabbits aren’t much,” Jack murmured as Gabriel tore the carcass open and started devouring the softened meat. “But it’s the best out there at the moment.”

Gabriel lifted his head and looked at him. The cluster of red eyes on his head trembled with the movement before Gabriel crawled forward and gently took Jack’s hands between his claws. His body was already starting to look human again and he slowly brought Jack’s hands up to his mouth, pressing them against his lips.

“I would eat anything you brought me, Jack,” Gabriel murmured. “Because I know you only bring me the best.”

Jack let out a sad laugh as he reached up to cup Gabriel’s face. The monstrous features melted away into the familiar face of his husband and Gabriel settled down on his knees so that they could press their heads together. The rope burn from the lynching that took his life stood out in furious contrast to the rest of his bronze flesh, the deep bruising making Jack’s eyes water.

He leaned forward and kissed over the mark, ignoring the way his own flesh cracked and crumbled off of him like the broken flesh of a roasted pig. Gabriel’s arms wrapped tightly around him, holding him close as they relieved their final moments of life again. Jack started coughing heavily, feeling the smoke and fire in his lungs as it seared him down to the bone. Gabriel’s fingers dug grooves into Jack’s back as he feverishly clawed at flesh as his windpipe was crushed under the weight of the rope and his body.

The people that Jack had grown up with had taken his love from him, blaming Gabriel’s dark skin for their crimes of sodomy. They refused to listen, refused to believe that Jack was a willing participant, that he loved Gabriel with all of his heart. They believed it to be some satanic influence from a man of ‘impure breeding’ and that once the man was dead, Jack would be free.

He had been forced to watch as Gabriel was hoisted off of his feet and into the air in front of the jail. He had screamed, begging them to let Gabriel go, but they had ignored him. It was horrific to watch his husband die, knowing that he was only a few feet away, held securely so that he didn’t run forward to save him.

They hadn’t even given Gabriel a proper burial. They’d dump his corpse into a nameless grave and left it; no coffin and no ceremony. Jack had been kept at the surgeon’s home and constantly visited by the priest to ‘save his soul’. Jack had spent most of the time crying, begging them to let him go so that he could be with Gabriel. He had been beaten until he could show that he wasn’t a sodomizer anymore.

When he was home, all alone in that huge farmhouse that his father had left for him after he died, Jack had started preparing his funeral pyre. He had stood in the bedroom, waiting for the fire to reach him. It had been painful, but he had never felt as free as when his cooked corpse fell to the burning floor and his spirit had leaped free.

Gabriel had met him in the cornfields, crying and holding him close. Jack had apologized over and over again, clinging to the spirit of his husband. He had foolishly thought that he could protect him out in the middle of nowhere, make sure that no one could ever hurt him. He had been horribly wrong. The people he had known had done something horrible to the man he loved and anger consumed him.

He had been transformed on the spot, losing his human form. Gabriel had followed him without hesitation, transforming into the same vengeance starved creature. Jack regretted what he had done to them, but at the same time, it was hard to feel sorry for the people that had fallen to their claws. They were the scum of the earth, those that thought themselves better than others because of arbitrary characteristics.

But not all of their victims had been worthy of death. Some had been innocent, but there was no reconciling with a creature of vengeance. They only wanted to kill. No amount of begging could dissuade them once they were on the trail.

“We’ll be okay,” Gabriel smiled and kissed him. “I love you, Jack.”

“I love you too, Gabriel,” Jack smiled up at him. “Come; you must be starving. Let’s finish those rabbits off together and then go see if we can’t track a human down.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Gabriel grinned before they pulled away.

They kissed one more time before shifting to their monstrous forms and falling on the rabbit corpses to feed. They were always hungry, all the better to keep hunting humans. Their shoulders bumped gently against each other as they fed, reminding the other that they were still there and that they weren’t about to leave.  

**Author's Note:**

> Why have one monster when I can have two? If you want a better idea of what Jack and Gabe's mouth/tongue looks like, look up the sniffer dogs from Silent Hill 4. 
> 
> And yes, they're getting less and less prey because Bloomington is a very progressive area. And people aren't prone to just go for a ride on the backroads when there are lots of records of people going missing and being found gorged on. People are dumb, but they ain't that dumb.
> 
> No, Ana is not racist; she's just in a bad place at a bad time. Hungry monsters don't care about stuff like that when they're hungry.


End file.
